The present invention relates to a cards processor for writing/reading a variety of information in and out of cards, and more particularly is suitable as terminal equipment for a toll receiving system in a toll road and the like.
In a long-distance toll road and the like having entrance gates and exit gates at a plurality of locations, a toll system whereby the toll in accordance with a utilization section and a utilized car type is collected is adopted. In such a toll receiving system a ticket in which the type of a car and the date and hour of utilization or information of the entrance gate and the like are recorded is issued and handed over to a user, and an operator collects the ticket from the user at the exit gate, reads information recorded in the ticket and liquidates the toll according to the utilization.
For this purpose, a cards processor for processing cards such as a credit card called a highway card and a separately paid plate which is a ticket or a prepaid card is installed at the entrance gate and the exit gate of above-described toll road and the like as a terminal equipment. A ticket utilizing a magnetic card constitutes the main usage today, but a ticket utilizing a punch card is also well known.
In an above-described conventional terminal equipment, a ticket processing portion 12, a display portion 13, a control portion 14 and a plate processing portion 15 are assembled in one main body 11 as shown in FIG. 14 which shows such equipment.
A ticket in case the toll is liquidated is fed into the ticket processing portion 12 through an inserting port 16 formed on the main body 11. On the other hand, when a ticket is newly issued, it is forwarded through a discharge port 17 from the ticket processing portion 12.
The control portion 14 is provided with an operation button 18 and a ten-key board 19 for inputting the car type and operation buttons 20 for special processing such as a free of charge certificate. In addition, a key plate inserting port for taking a plate such as a key plate and a separately paid plate in and out of the plate processing portion 15 is formed on the main body 11.
The above-described terminal equipment is used independently as a ticket vending machine at the entrance gate of a toll road, but the terminal equipment is jointly used with a receipt issuing machine 22, a cards processor 23 for a highway card and the like when it is used as a ticket identifying machine at the exit gate. The receipt issuing machine 22 is provided with an operation button 24 for issuing a receipt and a receipt issuing port 25, and the cards processor 23 is provided with a card gateway 26 for taking in and returning out a card.
A concrete structure of a conventional ticket processor 12 is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO62-9436 and others, but a ticket 27 is transported while being held with a drum 28 and an endless belt 29 for writing and reading various information in and out of the ticket 27 as illustrated in FIG. 15 showing a schematic construction and FIG. 16 showing a detail in cross section taken along A--A in the figure.
In such a structure, the drum 28 is driven to rotate continuously in a fixed direction (clockwise in FIG. 15) around a perpendicular shaft 30. At a part of the outer circumferential surface of the drum 28, the endless belt 29 stretched on four pulleys 31 to 34 is wound, and the endless belt 29 also rotates with the rotation of the drum 28. The pulley 31 facing on the inserting port 16 of the ticket 27 is pressed with a pinch roller 35. Thus, the ticket 27 is put between the drum 28 and the endless belt 29 and fed clockwise in the figure by pushing the ticket 27 between the pulley 31 and the pinch roller 35.
A hopper stacker 36 of the ticket 27 is arranged on one side of the drum 28, and this hopper stacker 36 functions principally as a stacker when the terminal equipment is used as a ticket identifying machine. On the other hand, the hopper stacker 36 functions principally as a hopper when it is used as a ticket vending machine. On the side of the hopper stacker 36 on the inserting port 16 side, a delivery roller 37 for delivering new tickets 27 stored in this hopper stacker 36 one by one is provided, and a guide roller 38 which feeds the ticket 27 delivered from the hopper stacker 36 between the drum 28 and the endless belt 29 is installed between the delivery roller 37 and the drum 28.
Further, a change-over lapper 39 which changes over feeding of the ticket 27 either to the hopper stacker 36 side or the discharge port 17 side is provided between the drum 28 and the endless belt 29 on the discharge port 17 side oscillatably. That is to say, when the equipment is used as a ticket identifying machine, the change-over flapper 39 is rotated clockwise in FIG. 15, and the ticket 27 is fed between the drum 28 and the endless belt 29 is guided to the hopper stacker 36 side, and on the other hand, when the equipment is used as a ticket vending machine the change-over flapper 39 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. 15, and the ticket 27 fed from between the drum 28 and the endless belt 29 is fed between a pulley 34 facing on the discharge port 17 side and a pinch roller 40 energized by the pulley 34, thus issuing the ticket 27 from the discharge port 17.
A first reproducing head 41, a recording head 42, a second reproducing head 43 and a print head 44 in order from the inserting port 16 side around the drum 28. Thus, various information recorded in the ticket 27 is read by means of the reproducing heads 41 and 43, necessary information is recorded in the ticket 27 by means of the recording head 42, and necessary information is printed on the ticket 27 by means of the print head 44.
Also, since printing positions of the print head 44 on the ticket 27 shift up and down at the time of issuing a ticket and at the time of withdrawal in FIG. 16, the print head 44 is made movable in a direction parallel with a shaft 30. Further, numeral 45 in FIG. 16 indicates an optical sensor which detects passage of the ticket 27.
When it is intended to process a credit card and the like along with the ticket 27 simultaneously at an exit gate and the like in a conventional cards processor illustrated in FIG. 14 thru FIG. 16, it is required to write data from the credit card and the like on the ticket 27 beforehand.
However, as shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, the ticket 27 is withdrawn into the hopper stacker 36 of the ticket processing portion 12 and it becomes impossible to write information of the credit card and the like in the ticket 27 unless the credit card is processed prior to processing of the ticket 27 in a conventional ticket processing machine.
That is to say, in a conventional ticket processing machine, when the ticket 27 is sent into the inserting port 16, the ticket 27 is withdrawn into the hopper stacker 36 after completing processing instantly because the drum 28 is always rotating. As a result, as steps of operation procedure, it is required to process the ticket 27 with the ticket processing machine beforehand after processing cards other than the ticket such as a credit card with the card processing machine 23, thus causing problems is operation that take time and so on in addition to troublesome operation.